A High Stakes Year
by k8gallagirl
Summary: Original story set in the VA universe after Last Sacrifice. After years of slacking, Meg Harrison finally decides that it's time to begin her guardian training in earnest. With the help of her best friend, Gilbert Dalton, Meg must learn enough to pass her trials. Unforeseen adventure pops up along the way, and Meg and Gilbert will learn and grow, all while trying to stay alive.
1. Chapter 1

A story set in the Vampire Academy universe post-Last Sacrifice. The main characters are my own, but the universe belongs to the brilliant Richelle Mead

The air rushed out of me as I landed flat on my back. Again. A freckled face with annoyingly honest blue eyes looked down at me. "I didn't realize it was possible, but I think you've gotten worse," Gil said as he reached down to help me up.

We had just returned from summer break and, in the interest of full disclosure, I will admit I hadn't even thought about combat training over those two months. My dear friend Gilbert Dalton on the other hand had been much more proactive in his training. He had gone to stay with his older brother Tom, who worked as a guardian at court. They had sparred often and hard, and Gilbert had learned a lot.

"Hey, I'm not actually getting worse, I just look worse to you after spending a few months sparring with that badass brother of yours." I pointed out.

"That may be true," he admitted, "but that was still pretty pathetic." I scoffed in mock hurt, but Gilbert wasn't joking anymore. "I'm serious Meg, if you can't get a lot better at this by the end of the year, you won't have a snowball's chance in hell of passing your trials."

"Gil, I don't actually care about trials, since I'm not all that interested in becoming a guardian," I said.

As usual though, he saw the error in my logic. "If you don't become a guardian, how else are you going to go to college?" The bastard had a point. Growing up in the vampire world, I'd never had a need for things like a social security number, a birth certificate, or any other human proof of, well, existence. As a guardian to a Moroi my own age, the court would provide me with falsified records so I could accompany them to college and protect them. It wasn't a perfect solution, since I would still have a full time job looking after some spoiled Moroi snot while taking classes, but it might be the only chance I would ever get of making it to med school.

For as long as I can remember, science has been my passion. When other Dhampirs my age were learning to fight and dreaming about killing Strigoi, I was more interested in pouring over the battered old copy of Grey's Anatomy that had been my father's. He had been an amazing doctor, involved with cutting edge research in Vampire biology. He was the first person to karyotype Moroi and Dhampirs, discovering that, unlike humans, Moroi had 24 pairs of chromosomes. Dhampirs have the normal 23 pairs that come standard issue in humans, but we also have one unpaired extra, that my dad hypothesized was the source of our enhancements. People said that he and my mom never would have lasted, since most Moroi men end up settling down with Moroi women, but they never had a chance to find out. Both of my parents perished in a Strigoi attack when I was just a baby. I'd found that book in my grandparent's hall closet when I was 8, and after learning that it was my dad's I started carrying it everywhere I went. I guess it made me feel close to him or something. Anyway, I still read and reread that book. Maybe part of the reason I want to be a doctor so badly is that my dad was one too, but mostly I just really love biology. My whole life I've been questioning everything, and I spend every spare second I have reading medical journals and science articles.

Unfortunately spare seconds have been hard to come by lately. Senior year was crunch time, even for those of us who weren't really interested in guardian training. After class ended, Gilbert and I walked toward the cafeteria. I couldn't stop thinking about what he had said. I had honestly never thought about how my lack of documentation would affect college, which in hindsight was pretty stupid of me. He was right; my only chance of getting in was to follow some Moroi there. My years of slacking had finally come back to bite me in the butt, because right now there was no way I would pass my trials. I was halfway through my turkey sandwich when I turned to Gil and blurted out, "heygulhuwfarbehunahyouthnkirllym?"

He started laughing at me and teased "Were you raised in a barn? Chew your food!"

I choked down my sandwich and then repeated, clearer, "Hey Gil, how far behind do you think I really am?"

"Pretty damn far, but why do you suddenly care?" He countered.

"Well," I said, "I think you have a point about the college thing. How am I going to get in if not as a guardian?"

Gil frowned, "I'm sure you'll find another way," he said, "I was only kidding before."

"No, you weren't," I said frankly. "Honestly, how far behind would you say I am?" I repeated.

"Please don't hate me for this," he started, "but I think you fight like a child. You've got the smarts to fight creatively, but you don't apply yourself, you're undisciplined, and you're out of shape," he finally admitted.

"If I start training for real now I can fix that though right?" I mused aloud.

"I don't know," Gil replied. "Maybe if you had a lot more practice time and someone to go one on one with then..."

"Would you do it?" I cut him off. "Would you be willing to whip my ass into gear?"

"Of course," he said. "I just don't know how much time I have to spare. Academic grades might not be that important in the Dhampir program, but we still need to pass in order to graduate." As awesome as Gilbert was at the combat and protection side of school, he struggled in his other classes. Personally, I thought he had the reverse of my problem. Gil was wicked smart, but he had no real reason to excel in academics. He was going to be a guardian, so that was what he focused on.

"Then we can help each other." I offered. "You teach me how to fight, and I'll tutor you. That way we both graduate on time. Being held back might suck a bit less if we were together, but it would still be pretty awful. What do you say?"

"You're on," he said. holding out his hand. We shook on it.


	2. Chapter 2

It was four AM when classes let out. Gil and I left Ms. Karp's English class and headed to the gym for our first practice session. Gil was just staring down at the quiz in his hand, dumbstruck. When he finally regained the power of speech, he muttered. "How did this happen? This can't be happening." Up until that point I had been trying to respect his privacy, but curiosity finally got the better of me. 13, that was what Gil got on the first reading quiz of the year. Gil didn't even try to hide the paper. He just shook his head and slumped against the gym doors. Head in hands, he repeated, "How did this happen."

Now, being someone who does well in English (compared to Gil anyway) I knew a rhetorical question when I saw one, but I just couldn't keep myself from answering. "Because you didn't read the book." I told him.

"How do you know that" he countered.

"Because the last book you read when the school told you to was Hop on Pop." I said.

"I read them all eventually," he continued, "I just prefer to do it when I have time, not when they tell me to."

"That's great for you, but that won't help you pass English. The quizzes are given on the teacher's time, not yours." I said.

"I don't even see why we have to read at all?" Gil was starting to get annoyed now.

"The point of making us read is for us to become semi-literate before we enter the real world!" I was about ready to whack Gil at this point, not that I'd ever be able to do any damage seeing as Gil was worlds above me as a fighter. As far as I was concerned, Gil was the best guy in the world, but he could be rather obtuse at times, like now.

Gil was still going. "I don't need to know how to read to kill Strigoi."

I finally snapped at him. "You may not need it to fight Strigoi, but you do need it to have a normal freaking life," I shouted, "We do not exist solely to fight. You are so much more than that. You are brilliant, and funny, and kind, and brave, and a million other things that are so much more important than fighting ability. Why can't you see this? Why can't you see that your life could be so much more than a handful of fights and a premature death!"

Gil was looking at me strangely after my little outburst. Admittedly, it had come out of nowhere. Finally he shook off whatever odd thoughts were running through his head and quipped, "I wouldn't be so worried about my premature death Miss I-can't-even-walk-without-tripping." With that we headed into the gym, where I proceeded to get my ass handed to me for two hours.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: The Vampire Academy universe and certain characters mentioned in passing do not belong to me. They are the brainchildren of the brilliant and talented Richelle Mead. The story and main characters are, however, my own.

I woke up the next morning bruised and sore. Gil was a tough task master. He practically made our instructors look like pansies. Never in my life had I needed to work as hard as Gil had made me yesterday. And it would only continue. We had it worked out that the two hours at the end of the day would be spent training, and our lunch and dinner hour would become study time. Hopefully that would be enough to get us both to graduation.

Hopping out of bed, I grabbed a clean uniform from the closet. My roommate, Missy, was already gone. She got up at an ungodly hour every evening to go for a run. We had never really become friends, just too different I guess. She was a party girl and health nut; I was a lazy homebody with an Oreo addiction. Missy wasn't bad though. She gave me my space, and I gave her hers. For the most part, we were like two ships passing in the night, which was the way we preferred things. After showering and changing, I headed down to the dining hall for breakfast.

I sat down with an impressive stack of pancakes smothered in syrup and a glass of milk. I didn't see anyone I felt comfortable sitting with, so I grabbed an empty table. Still feeling stiff from yesterday's workout, I went to crack my neck.

"Urrrrghhhhh, I hate it when you do that," a voice grumbled from behind me. Ahh, Sarah, I don't know what a day would be like without her whining, because lord knows I've never seen one. Sarah was my half-sister, six years older than me. She was the daughter of my father, Felix Campbell, and his college girlfriend. The girlfriend, Anita, was more than just a little bit nutty. Recently it came out that she, like our illustrious queen Vasilisa Dragomir, was a spirit user, but the fact remains that she had a few loose screws. Dad left her once she hopped the train to crazy town for Sarah's safety. He got custody because of Anita's self-destructive behavior, and Sarah hasn't seen her mom since. Once my parents died, both of us were sent to be raised by our paternal grandparents.

After college, Sarah decided to come back to St. Vladimir's to teach magic. She was a fire prodigy, with a temper and head of hair to match her magic. Anyway, now I get the immense pleasure of seeing her bright and shining face. Every. Single. Morning. Further, since she's a teacher, I have to be careful when I poke fun at her, because she has the power to give me detention if I go too far, a power she has used often over the past two years. I'm positive that there is something very unethical about that, but the school disagrees, and the power remains.

Sarah slid into the seat across from me, with a stack of pancakes to rival my own in size. She ate more human food than any Moroi I had ever met. That was one of the few things we could bond over. Before she left for college, every weekend she would slip into the Dhampir dorms, and I would share my junk food stash with her. I hate to say it, but I missed those venting sessions over sugary food. As much as Sarah annoyed me, and I her, we knew we could trust each other, and we told each other a lot. When Sarah came back to St. Vlad's we started doing it again, something that I'm really happy about. Plus, as an added bonus, as a teacher she is free to leave campus whenever she wants, so she can finally pull her own weight where supplying snacks is concerned.

"So where is loverboy this morning?" Sarah asked. No matter how many times I told her Gilbert was just a friend, Sarah continued to insist the two of us were an item. It's not like I've never thought about it, but Gil and I were probably better off just friends. Sure, I loved the guy, and he was undoubtedly attractive, but we are just too honest with each other to do the dating thing. Someone would wind up strangled within a week.

"No clue." I told Sarah. "Where's yours?" I was referring to Mr. Assonov, my Russian language teacher, who Sarah had been going out with for a few weeks. It was a little weird having your sister date your teacher, but no weirder having your sister be your teacher. Plus I finally had one up on her because of it. She could tease me about Gil as much as she wanted, but we both knew it wasn't true. Her and Mr. Assonov on the other hand, very true and ripe for teasing. She turned red and muttered something that I assume was not complementary under her breath, and I smiled. I loved her, but that didn't mean I couldn't enjoy getting to her.

It was at that juncture that Gil and his buddy Frank joined us at the table. Frank was short and stout, strange for a Moroi, and well-mannered and quiet, strange for a teenage boy. Gil had grown up with Frank. His mom was a guardian, so she had left Gil to be raised by her old school friend, Diane Badica, Frank's mom. They were pretty close, and Gil would probably become Frank's guardian when they graduated. The pair had been laughing at something, but Frank grew quiet upon seeing who was at the table.

"Good morning Miss Cassidy," he said solemnly to my sister, his fire magic instructor. Since our dad hadn't actually been married to either of our moms, we both used our respective mothers' last names. People still figured out that we were sisters pretty easily though. As a Moroi, Sarah was taller than I, but we had the same coloring. Both of us had inherited our dad's red hair, and the ghostly pallor that came with it. She lucked out though, with the perfect skin and slim build natural to the Moroi. I was hopelessly freckled and had a figure that reflected my love of Oreos.

Sarah flashed a smile and said, "Hey Frank, how's it going."

"Um, I'm doing well Miss Cassidy," Frank stammered nervously. He never could get used seeing Sarah in a social setting. Gil had known her long enough that he found the new arrangement as laughable as I did, but to Frank it seemed Sarah would always be Miss Cassidy, his demanding fire magic teacher.

Seeing that Frank was uncomfortable, Sarah nodded a quick greeting to Gil, then excused herself, saying to me, "See ya tomorrow little sis. I'll bring the ice cream."

Gilbert took her now vacant seat, and Frank slid in next to him. We chatted for a bit. "So did you hear," Gil began, "There are these two guardians at court who are getting married. I heard from Tom that not only are they going to keep their jobs, but this is happening with the queen's blessing! Did you ever hear something so odd?" Usually Dhampirs choose between family life and Guardian work. The point is they pick one or the other, not both.

"Yeah, I think I did hear that." I said. "Good for them though. I heard the two of them are pretty much the best guardians out there, so I don't think they'd make the mistake of letting a relationship get in the way of their duty. One of them is on the Queen's guard for Christ's sake. They must have some arrangement that makes it work."

"True," Frank chimed in, "but there has been a lot of controversy around the pair already. This guy Dimitri was one of the Strigoi restored by the queen, and the chick Rose was accused of murdering Tatiana Ivashkov. It's crazy how some people seem to be magnets for trouble"

"Speaking of trouble, do you have the math homework for Molinaro, Frank?" Gil asked. "I forgot to do it last night, and I'm going to be in quite a lot of trouble if I don't turn it in again." I glared at him. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, and preempted the inevitable teacher-esque scolding with a defense. "I meant to do it, I really did, but Alto got the new model of stakes in. They were awesome. They've got a spirit charm for stamina on them so I had to…"

"Do you know how much I don't care right now?" I cut him off. "You do realize that Molinaro docks 5 points from your average for every homework you miss, right? Since you have missed four within the first two weeks, the highest you could possibly get this trimester is already an 80, and now you want to make that lower."

"What?" he looked shocked. "We were never informed of this."

"I am willing to bet money that he told you on the first day of classes, just like he does every year."

"She's right," Frank said softly. "He told us verbally, and we have it in writing on the syllabus."

Gilbert got a certain shifty, guilty look in his eyes that, over the years, I had learned to recognize as the one he got when he was trying to keep me from finding out that he cut class. I called him out on it, "You don't know about this because you weren't in class the first day, were you?"

When it became apparent that Gilbert would prefer to remain silent, Frank answered for him, telling me that no, Gilbert did not decide to grace the class with his presence that day. It was then explained that Guardian Alto was offering a start of term practice session to anyone who had third period off. Gil decided that that was more important, so he cut pre-calc to go.

"Don't do the whole disappointed teacher look," Gil said, annoyed. "You are not my mother, or my instructor, or in any way responsible for me, so I don't see why you should be upset about this. You are my friend, so why can't you just act like it?"

"I am responsible for you now," I reminded him. "According to our deal, I am responsible for keeping you on track academically and if that means I need scold you like a five year old, then so be it. So I guess now it's time to set tutoring rule number one. You need to actually go to class, and you need to do your freaking homework."

"Fine," Gil huffed. He stormed off, hopefully to do his homework.

"That was a bit harsh," Frank reproved. "He plays tough, but he cares about what you think of him. It hurts when you're mad at him."

"Good," I said. "Then maybe that will keep him from pulling this shit yet again." I excused myself and went to my locker before first period started. I was still pretty upset when I took my seat in Calculus. I hated it when Gil and I fought, but sometimes it was necessary. There were very few people who could get through to that blockhead, and as one of them, I had a duty to make sure Gil didn't f-up his life too badly. He did the same for me, seeing as I was only marginally more reasonable when it came to taking advice. I liked having a friend who wasn't afraid to call me on my bullshit. Hopefully he felt the same way

By the time four AM rolled around, Gil had cooled off a bit, and seemed to be in a better mood. We went to the gym, and started with some hand to hand stuff. He came at me like a freight train. There was all that pent up aggression. Gil might not want to continue our fight verbally, but he was obviously still not over it. He wasn't out to hurt me or anything, and he still pulled his punches like always, but I had never seen Gil fight like this. It was almost beautiful to watch the speed and grace with which he struck. I say almost because it's slightly less enjoyable when you know those graceful moves are going to land you on your ass. Which they did, repeatedly. When we broke for water, we just looked at each other and I started laughing. Soon enough, he was chortling too.

"Hey, I'm sorry I was so hard on you before," I apologized, turning serious, "It's just so infuriating to watch you sabotage yourself like that. Honest to god, you are one of the smartest people I know, but you refuse to use that when it comes to your schoolwork."

"You're probably right," Gil said sheepishly, grabbing the back of his neck, "And I'm sorry for getting all defensive. I know I need to get my act together, it's just rough hearing someone else tell me that.

"Friends?" I offered.

"Friends," he said, pulling me into a hug.

"Now back to work," he said, mock-sternly.

"Sir yes sir," I saluted, and headed back onto the mats for another beating.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: The Vampire Academy universe belongs to Richelle Mead. This story and it's main characters belong to me.

Authors Note: If you have any suggestions or advice, please review and tell me. I'm always looking to improve, and I would love your feedback.

"Holy-mother-of-shit" I declared, jerking upright, startled out of a deep sleep by someone firmly shaking my shoulder.

"Chill, Meg," Missy said, "It's just me. Get dressed; we're going for a run."

"What, why?" I murmured, rubbing the last bit of sleep from my eyes.

"Gilbert asked me to get you up for a run this morning," she explained.

"You know Gil?" I asked, rather shocked. It had never dawned on me that my best friend might know my elusive roomie.

"Of course, he's my running buddy," she remarked as she slipped on her sneakers.

Now this was interesting. Gil and I told each other everything, and I do mean everything. I've sat through more monologues on the comparative merits of different high protein diet plans than I care to recall, among other, and if you can believe it, less interesting topics. So I found it more than just a little odd that he had never mentioned, not even in passing, that he ran every morning with my roommate. It didn't matter to me who he ran with, as long as it wasn't me, which unfortunately, this morning, it was. However, one of the few reasons that Gil would keep an acquaintance secret in the past was romantic interest. He seemed to be of the impression that I was too innocent to know that he dated, a lot, so he tried to protect his poor naïve little friend from hearing about his extracurricular activities. I understood pretty well though, and I planned to tease him mercilessly about my suspicions later.

The sun was still up when we met Gil at the track. He was chuckling at something, and when I inquired as to what, he was very happy to explain.

"It's you," he said. "You know how in those ridiculously inaccurate teen vampire books we're all supposed to sparkle, well I've never noticed it before since I only see you at night, but you do. You're so pale that, from a distance, you actually sparkle in sunlight!" I stuck my tongue out at this, but sadly, I didn't doubt what he said. Most Dhampirs were pretty tan from all that time spent outdoors, even if the majority of it is at night. I however am paler than most Moroi even, and they're supernaturally pasty. It's the curse of the redhead.

Cutting to the chase, I asked, "Why exactly have you dragged me out of bed in the wee small hours of the evening to run around in circles?"

"Because you're out of shape" Gil said. I must have looked pretty annoyed at this, because he continued. "Don't get mad at me for telling the truth. You practically get out of breath walking across campus." While this was a bit of an exaggeration, I caught his drift. Begrudgingly, I nodded to indicate that he was right. Any other time I might have put up a bit more of a fight, but it was too early to argue. Actually, Gil was probably counting on that. He was fully aware that I am by no means an evening person, and had stumbled years ago upon the valuable fact that I'm too tired to be stubborn any time before eight o'clock. He won a lot of arguments through the skilled use of that little tidbit of information.

That morning, I ran until I wanted to hurl. It seemed like we were out there for hours, but when I checked my phone at the end of it, I was shocked to learn that we had only been running for a half hour or so. I drank some water, and then flopped down on the grass, watching the sunset. Not surprisingly, I hadn't seen many, since watching a sunset means waking up at the crack of dusk. Missy headed back to the dorms, and I waved goodbye. After bidding adieu to his running buddy, Gill walked over and plopped down next to me.

"For a first day, you actually didn't do terribly," he said.

"Wow, high praise," I said with an eye-roll.

"You know what I mean," Gilbert continued, smirking. "I'd have thought you'd be in much worse shape considering how effectively you avoid exercise. You have pretty decent stamina though."

"Just full of hidden talents," I quipped.

"Seriously though, you are the laziest couch potato I've ever met. How were you able to keep up with us?" he asked.

"Swimming," I answered. Gil looked puzzled. "If we'd done this later in the year I probably would have died," I went on, "but I'm actually fairly fit at the moment. I swim a lot of laps in the summer, and we've only been back a few weeks. I've not yet had time to become one with the couch again."

"Well this is one for the history books," Gil teased. "Meg Harrison willingly participating in physical activity. I never thought I'd see the day."

I punched him lightly in the arm at this, but I couldn't really blame him for being surprised.

"Why don't you continue doing laps during the year though? We do have a pool here." Gil asked.

"Wait, what?" I responded, genuinely shocked.

Laughing, he said, "Yeah, there's an Olympic sized indoor pool on campus. You might know that if you ever set foot in the fitness center."

The fitness center was a big ugly building by the Dhampir dorms, open for student use. Gilbert was completely right in assuming I had never been inside. With this new intel, however, I was considering changing that. Swimming was one of the few, if not the only, forms of exercise I enjoyed. If there really was a pool on campus, this getting in shape business might not be as bad as I had originally thought.


End file.
